Nuclear power plant maintenance optimization

Nuclear power plant includes multiple components and systems, which are maintained in order to limit or prevent failures resulting from the ageing and deterioration. These components and systems are unavailable during the maintenance activities. The unavailability of the safety systems results in increased risk of the nuclear power plant. A method for optimization of the maintenance activities in the nuclear power plant applying heuristics algorithms is presented. The maintenance optimization is modelled as a combinatorial problem. The minimal cut sets identified in the probabilistic safety assessment are used for assessment of the risk in the optimization function. The periodically tested component model is applied for the modelling of the components included in the maintenance. The developed method is applied on test models and the obtained results are presented. Results show that optimization of maintenance decreases the risk and thus improves the plant safety.